Steel Charts

Steel Properties Chart

A few disclaimers about this chart are in order. The first is that it is meant to show a steels potential when heat treated at an optimal working hardness (which will vary by steel). So a poorly heat treated blade with CPM S90V may not have the edge retention of a well heat treated AUS 8 blade with optimum blade geometry for your specific needs. These charts should be a reasonable guide to choose a steel the excels in the attributes that are most needed for your particular application. There are no broad laboratory quantifiable tests measuring these attributes, therefore the results below are assembled through manufacturer supplied data, conclusions based on alloy composition, my own observations and testing, existing charts, specific input from the knife community at large, and recently edge retention testing from Cedric and Ada Outdoors. The resulting charts represent my best effort of compiling a comparative list. Although there are ways in which this chart may fall short I believe this will be a helpfull touch point for understanding the evolving landscape of knife steels.